French Bureaucracy

Let it be known: Getting anything done in France that involves paper work, forms of any kind, applications, anything...it is the biggest cluster-fuck you could ever imagine.

In Canada if you need a health card, you go to the health card office. If you need a drivers license, you go to driving bureau. If you need a passport, you go to the passport office. You get the idea.

In France however, some buildings do a list of things, some do only one or two things for you, and some, it seems, are only there to tell you you're in the wrong place. Today I applied for my national identity card, which gives me complete dual-citizenship. Originally I was told to go to the Prefecture (police station) to file my application. Once inside, I was directed to another desk that deals with foreigners specifically. Keep in mind I told the woman at the desk exactly what I was there for.

Guess what, I was in the wrong place. Not just at the wrong desk, but at the wrong building entirely. I was then told to go to the local Mairie (City Hall) to sort it out. After a twenty minute walk or so, I arrived. I enter, talk to a lady at a desk, and am promptly told that I am in the wrong building, again. See in France, apparently they have little mini-City Halls for each district in the city. I was then directed to the Mairie de Vieux Lille (our neighborhood). Finally, I was in the right place. All my papers were in order, and I was in and out in about fifteen minutes. So what could have taken fifteen minutes actually took an hour and a half. To top it off its going to take a month for them to process my application. Great.